This invention relates generally to mobile communication terminals, such as hand-held radiotelephones including cellular telephones and personal communicators, and more particularly is related to those mobile communication terminals having a receiver for receiving transmissions from satellites of the Global Positioning System (GPS) and a processor for determining an accurate location of the terminal based on the received GPS transmissions.
A modern mobile communication terminal (MCT) may be constructed to contain a GPS sub-system, or to have an interface for being bidirectionally coupled to an accessory device that contains the GPS sub-system. Reference in this regard may be had to, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,786,789, issued Jul. 28, 1998, entitled xe2x80x9cGPS and Cellphone Unit Having Add-on Modulesxe2x80x9d to Janky (Trimble Navigation Limited). Reference may also be had to commonly assigned and copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/473,485 filed Dec. 28, 1999, entitled xe2x80x9cImproved Electrical, Mechanical, and Logical Interface for a User Terminal GPS Accessory Modulexe2x80x9d by M. Sutherland et al. A MCT having GPS functionality may be referred to herein as being a GPS-capable MCT. One problem that can arise during the operation of a GPS-capable MCT relates to an amount of memory that is available for storing maps. The use of a map is desirable, as the map can be displayed by the MCT, or by an attached peripheral device or accessory, such as a PC, a laptop or notebook computer, or a personal organizer, whereby the user""s GPS-determined location can be indicated on the map. In this manner the user is enabled to navigate through city streets, country roads, etc. However, because of limited memory capability the MCT and/or GPS accessory may not be capable of simultaneously storing a sufficient number of maps to satisfy the needs of the user. If the user is unable to store a desired number of maps in the MCT, and if the user is not able to access a source of maps to retrieve same through a wired connection to a data communications network, then the overall functionality of the GPS-capable MCT may be impaired.
Another MCT-location related problem can arise when the GPS-capable MCT enters a service area that differs from the home service area of the MCT. In this case it may be desirable for a network operator or for some other entity to provide location-specific protocols and/or software versions to the MCT. However, at the present time this need has not been satisfactorily addressed.
It is a first object and advantage of this invention to provide methods and apparatus for a GPS-capable MCT that overcomes the foregoing and other problems.
It is another object and advantage of this invention to provide methods and apparatus for a GPS-capable MCT to receive, on demand or in an automatic fashion, a download of a map that i descriptive of an area in which the MCT is currently located, or is predicted to be located.
It is a further object and advantage of this invention to provide methods and apparatus for a GPS-ucapable MCT to receive, on demand or in an automatic fashion, a download of location-specific software that facilitates the operation, of the MCT within an area in which the MCT is currently located, or is predicted to be located.
The forgoing and other problems are overcome and the objects of the invention are realized by methods and apparatus in accordance with embodiments of this invention.
A method in accordance with the teachings found herein operates a MCT by the steps of: (A) determining, at the MCT, a location of the MCT in accordance with Global Positioning System (GPS) inputs, (B) transmitting a signal that indicates the GPS-determined location, the signal being transmitted from the MCT to a network service provider, and (C) downloading data to the MCT from the network service provider or from a server that is coupled to the network service provider through a data communications network, the downloaded data being selected in accordance with the GPS-determined location of the MCT. The step of determining may employ a GPS capability of the MCT or a GPS capability of a GPS accessory that is coupled to the MCT. In one embodiment the downloaded data is comprised of map data, while in another embodiment the downloaded data is comprised of at least one of operating software or an operating protocol. The data may be downloaded as a background task. The step of transmitting may occur periodically, or in response to a user input, or in response to a request from the network service provider.
In accordance with a further method of this invention for operating the MCT, the user inputs to the MCT an expected future location of the MCT; the MCT transmits a signal that indicates the expected future location, the signal being transmitted from the MCT to a network service provider; and data is downloaded to the MCT from the network service provider, the downloaded data being selected in accordance with the expected future location of the MCT. As before, it may be preferable that the data is downloaded as a background task.